History FanFic / SayItThrice

* PumpkinPerson: The jack-o-lantern that Betelgeuse so painstakingly carves turns out to be a rather impressive self-portrait.

Written by Creator/BookwormGal, the story can be found [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11253460/1/Say-It-Thrice here]] or [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/3954175/chapters/8866060 here]].

* CuriosityCausesConversion: Betelgeuse can't figure out why Lydia would want to be nice to him, since almost no one ever is; he especially doesn't understand her motives after the almost-wedding. So he decides to stick around and see if he can work out her angle. In the process, he grows genuinely attached.

* CessationOfExistence: What can happen to ghosts who end up destroyed rather than moving on or being [[DeaderThanDead exorcised]].
** [[spoiler:Betelgeuse almost [[HeroicRROD succumbs to this fate]]. ''Twice''.]]

* CoolCar: Jazz drives "the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle" during the mission to stop Aunt Melinda and Uncle Roger.

* DeaderThanDead: The result of a completed exorcism.
** Can also be their fate if they manage to be [[CessationOfExistence destroyed permanently]].

* UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper: [[spoiler:Sanduleak turns out to be the serial killer himself]].

* NeverMyFault: Melinda [[spoiler:blames ghosts for all of her problems: the lack of parental love and affection, her first heartbreak, her brother turning to crime, her sister leaving, and anything else she can come up with]].
* TheNicknamer: Betelgeuse

* TongueTied: Betelgeuse cannot say his own name. [[spoiler:Or, after his encounter with Aunt Melinda, Lydia's name.]]

* WomanInWhite: Lydia's Aunt Melinda

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

Death was a far too familiar concept to [[Film/{{Beetlejuice}} Lydia Deetz]]. Between her mother's death when she was younger, the haunted house she loves, her godparent-like ghosts, and her knowledge of various aspects of the Netherworld and the rules, she feels confident that she has a firm understanding of death and the dead.

But [[OurGhostsAreDifferent not all ghosts are the same as those she knows]]. And thanks to an accident and an aunt she's quickly growing to hate, she'll have the perfect chance to witness these other types of ghosts in [[WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom Amity Park]]. Meanwhile, someone is plotting and a certain poltergeist refuses to let go.

* {{Foil}}: Sanduleak serves as this towards Betelgeuse. Both are [[{{Poltergeist}} poltergeists]], share their [[StellarName names with stars]], and have annoying limitations. But Sanduleak lacks any of [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Betelgeuse's]] virtues, has no problem [[EveryoneHasStandards crossing lines]] that the other poltergeist wouldn't, and has all of Betelgeuse's flaws turned UpToEleven.

** [[UpToEleven And then]] [[spoiler:''Betelgeuse'' comes in contact with the Gem of Osiris.]]

* AdultFear: [[spoiler:In the flashback where Melinda performs her binding ritual, it's clear that while Betelgeuse is certainly very angry about what's being done to him, he's also genuinely afraid that Lydia's going to be hurt in the process. "She's off limits!"]]
** And later, when he realizes that [[spoiler:Sanduleak is after Lydia]], his voice drops almost to a terrified whisper.

* {{Diary}}: Part of the friendship between Lydia and Betelgeuse is forged by them having written conversations in her journal, as shown in the first story.

* OnlyOneName: Betelgeuse. {{Justified}} by the fact that he was born back before surnames became common.

* ThouShaltNotKill: Turns out Betelgeuse has gotten ''really'' good at restricting his hauntings to AmusingInjuries, which is why there were no lasting repercussions from him flinging Charles and Otho off of a staircase, or Maxie and Sarah Dean through a ceiling. Explained further when Betelgeuse assures Danny that he won't kill Aunt Melinda; he dismisses it as "boring and too easy" and that [[MoralityPet Lydia would never forgive him]], but implies that the real problem is that though Juno and the CelestialBureaucracy allows and even encourages ghosts to scare the living senseless to keep them from breaking the {{Masquerade}}, lethal injury is right up there with proving the existence of ghosts as ''the'' big no-no, as people murdered by ghosts tend to become ''really'' dangerous(not to mention really ''pissed-off'') ghosts themselves -- [[spoiler:not that Sanduleak really cares. Betelgeuse went "juicing" with him exactly ''once'', thinking he'd found a kindred prankster, only to realize he'd gone on a wilding with ''UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper'' and sealing him in a well for the next century. Enforcing this rule on such a powerful ghost without being asked is why Juno and her superiors haven't done anything permanent to Betelgeuse]].

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:Strangely enough, it turns out that if you try to murder your niece, you'll get arrested.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Lydia explains that she calls him "Beej" because to call him BG reminds her too much of Music/TheBeeGees. Betelgeuse responds by teasing her that before she knew how to spell his name correctly, she probably thought of him as BJ and that would have reminded her of something else entirely.

* YoungerThanSheLooks: Due to the fact they called her a "little girl" in the [[Film/{{Beetlejuice}} film]] (even though her actress at the time of filming was 17), Lydia is stated to be 12, almost 13, shortly after the events of the movie. This allows her to be about the same age as Danny and his friends during the story (14).
** FridgeBrilliance kicks in with the fact Cartoon!Lydia DOES look to be around 12-13 years old.

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* InsistentTerminology: As in the main story, Betelgeuse quickly grows to consider Lydia "''his'' girl." He admits he's not quite sure why he's more or less imprinted on her in this way, but he's known from the first time he saw her that she's something special and he regards her as his own.

* OneGenderSchool: Lydia is a student at Miss Shannon's School for Girls.

* UngratefulBastard: Henry hate Betelgeuse despite the fact the men take him and his sister in after his parents die.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: As he corrects in Lydia's journal, his name is "Betelgeuse," not "Film/{{Beetlejuice}}", a reference to the [[InconsistentTerminology inconsistent naming]] even the franchise itself suffered from.

** Even Betelgeuse's traits from the film (bug-eating, his skills at exploiting loopholes, his preference for making deals to get what he desires, wearing stripes) are all established long before the {{flashback}} [[spoiler:to [[TheHighMiddleAges when]] he was alive]].

* PoorCommunicationKills: When Danny first asks Betelgeuse who his mortal bride is, the Ghost with the Most finds that Melinda's binding prevents him from saying Lydia's name, so he simply describes her to him. Unfortunately, the description he gives (dark-haired goth girl) sounds a lot like Sam. Danny [[BerserkButton doesn't]] [[LetsYouAndHimFight approve]]. It's only when Danny mentions Sam's name does Beej realize there's been a misunderstanding.

* PutOnABusToHell: Charlies and Delia are dead, not even leaving a ghost, before the first chapter even begins, Lydia implying that they also died in a car crash, except, in their case, they'd provided heavily for Lydia's future.

** ReasonableAuthorityFigure: They have the decency to re-examine their methods and are big enough to admit that she's right. By the end of the story, it's strongly implied that, thanks to discussing the Netherworld with Betelgeuse and Lydia, they have completely reverted to only hunting ghosts who require it.

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** Derrick considers [[spoiler: beating Betelgeuse into incoherence and throwing him into the swamp to slowly drown]] perfectly justified for what he believes happened to his sister, but when he realizes what ''actually'' happened ([[spoiler:she just got lost on her way home and Betelgeuse didn't harm her in the least, instead actually ''proposing'' to her]]), he's horrified by what he's done....though not enough to admit it.

* LadykillerInLove: Betelgeuse is known to go after any woman who crosses his path. [[spoiler:But he did love Avelyn back when he was alive and even proposed. It did not end well...]]

* RedHerring: It seems like Betelgeuse might be planning something involving Lydia's absent mother, due to the heavy emphasis on her in some of their conversations. Actually it's that he gets [[MagicalIncantation the rhyme that allowed everything from the cartoon to happen...]]

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* PumpkinPerson: The jack-o-lantern that Betelgeuse so painstakingly carves turns out to be a rather impressive self-portrait.
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* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: Henry father was a kind open minded men who was best friends with Betelgeuse. Henry however is a ungrateful jerkass who hate Betelgeuse like the rest of the village despite Betelgeuse taking him and his sister in after there parents die.

* LoopholeAbuse: Aunt Melinda sets it up so that Betelgeuse can't view Lydia through mirrors. But that doesn't stop him from seeing everything ''around'' her.
** Betelgeuse has always been fond of using loopholes to his advantage. [[spoiler:Even when he was a child]].

* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: Henry father was a kind open minded men who was best friends with Betelgeuse. Henry however is a ungrateful jerkass how hate Betelgeuse despite Betelgeuse taking him and his sister in after there parents die.

* AuraVision: Distinctively different than Danny's [[SpiderSense Ghost Sense]], some ghosts can sense things about other ghosts and supernatural stuff. According to Betelgeuse's narrative, ectoplasm-based ghosts practically have a spotlight on them while humans have faint aura (though the ones who get involved with the supernatural are a little brighter). Apparently Danny, being half-human and half ectoplasm-based ghost, is really distinctive.

** Maddie Fenton accidentally calls the Netherworld "[[WesternAnimtation/{{Beetlejuice}} the Neitherworld]]."

A stand-alone spinoff story, ''Just Say It'' (found [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12172544/1/Just-Say-It here]] and [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/8178547 here]]), was written for the ''[=BeetleBabes=]'' community's Halloween contest on DeviantArt. In this one-shot, set after the events of ''Say It Thrice'', Lydia is celebrating her first Halloween in Amity Park, and her favorite poltergeist helps her carve some jack-o-lanterns.